Strip feeding and registration means



1963 F. A. LYON ETAL 3,098,405

STRIP FEEDING AND REGISTRATION MEANS Filed Sept 14, 1960 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 -m m a INVENTORS.

THEODORE E ARONSON BY FLOYD A. LYON ATTORNE Y.

July 23, 1963 F. A. LYON- ETAL STRIP FEEDING AND REGISTRATION MEANS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Sept. 14, 1960 WEBIVELOCITY AT WORK LOCATION 2K WORK WORK TRAVEL WORK TRAVEL .INVENTORS THEODORE F. ARONSON BY FLOYD A. LYON FIG. 4A

gw 7 ATTORNEY.

July 23, 1963 F. A. LYON ETAL STRIP FEEDING AND REGISTRATION MEANS 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Sept. 14, 1960 THEODORE E ARONSON BY FLOYD A. LYON ATTORNEY.

Patented July 23, 1963 3,098,405 STRIP FEEDING AND REGISTRATION MEANS Floyd A. Lyon, Brookville, and Theodore F. Aronson, Glen Cove, N.Y., assignors to Commercial Envelope Manufacturing Co., Inc., New York, N.Y. Filed Sept. 14, 1960, Ser. No. 56,038 4 Claims. (Cl. 83-236) This invention relates to high speed means for feeding a strip of material past a work place with constant speed input and output but with intermittent motion at the work location, and more particularly to means for adjusting the registration or alignment of said strip at full speed.

This application is a continuation-in-part of our prior application S.N. 740,669, filed June 9, 1958, for Strip Feeding Means.

The invention is illustrated in connection with the cutting for instance of envelope blanks in a continuous strip or web. In the manufacture of envelopes, the first step is to form individual blanks from a continuous strip of paper. This is generally done by cutting a diamond shaped center aperture together with a pair of side notches for each blank.

There are several problems in vgetting high speed operation. If the paper is punched with a reciprocating type punch, then the strip must be stopped each time the punch operates. This requires intermittent motion of the heavy punch press machine with a clutch drive and makes the operation essentially one of low speed. The present device eliminates all clutch drives. and is continuously connected and driven.

One of the solutions has been to mount the cutting dies on rollers. However, this has been found not practical since the positive and negative portions of the cutting dies wear out rapidly during rotary engagement.

The present invention provides a work station, for instance, a reciprocating punch type die cutter, input and output drive means for the strip which have substantially constant speed and registration or alignment means for the web at full speed. There is a certain amount of slack in the strip on each side of the cutter, and this slack is manipulated by a pair of rollers mounted on a rocking arm in synchronism with the cutter so that the paper at the cutter position is momentarily stopped at the time of cutting or punching or other work. In other words, the input and output speed of the strip is substantially constant, but the speed in the vicinity of the cutter is varied so that the web motion past the cutter is intermittent while the average speed is constant and equal to the input and output speed. It is possible to achieve this result since the only thing being intermittently controlled is the paper which has negligible weight. All other parts of the machinery which have appreciable weight run with constant or smooth varying motion. With the arrangement of the present invention it has been found that very 'high speed operation on the order of 1,000 cycles per minute can be obtained with up to twelve inches advance motion per cycle or 1,000 feet of web per minute.

Accordingly, a principal object of the invention is to provide new and improved high speed strip or web material feeding means.

Another object of the invention is to provide new and improved registration and alignment means in a web feed ing machine.

Another object of the invention is to provide new and improved registration means in a web feeding machine of the type having intermittent feed at a reciprocating work means, the registration means being adjustable at full speed.

Another object of the invention is to provide strip material feeding means having constant input and output speeds but intermittent motion at a work location.

Another object of the invention is to provide new and improved high speed cutting means for strip material.

- Another object of the invention is to provide new and improved handling means for strip material.

Another object of the invention i to provide new and improved high speed cutting means for making envelopes.

Another object of the invention is to provide new and improved strip handling and processing means.

These and other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following specification and drawings, of which:

FIGURE 1 is a schematic drawing of an embodiment of the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a plot of web velocity at the work location against time.

FIGURE 3 is a front view of an embodiment of the invention.

FIGURE 3A is a detail view of the registration means.

FIGURE 4 is a partial side view of an embodiment of FIGURE 3, partially in section, and

FIGURE 4A is a detail View. 7

FIGURE 1 shows a schematic drawing of an embodi ment of the invention. The strip or web 1 of material is fed from the roll of material 2 by a pair of driven rollers 3 and 5 over movable idler roller 7 and under idler roller 6. An input slack loop in the strip is formed around the roller 7 which is located between and above the rollers groove 10' in the flywheel cam 10. The groove 10' may be approximately circular but mounted ofi center on flywheel cam 10.

On the output side of the central work location there are output idler roller 12, driven roller 13, and an oscillating idler roller 14 located between and above rollers 12 and 13, and mounted on the arm 8 so as to form an output slack loop in the strip. Roller 13 is connected to motor driven shaft M. Pressure idler rollers 5' and 13 bear against rollers 5 and 13.

At the work location is located a punch and die set comprising a lower fixedly mounted die 20 and the upperreciprocating die punch 21 which is adapted to be reciprocated up and down in synchronism with the oscillating arm 8 by means of crank arm 22 connected to flywheel cam 10, connecting rod 23 connected at its other end to shaft 24 of the movable die 21. Shaft 24 rides up and down in guide way 25 mounted on the main frame. All the rollers except those on the oscillating arm and all the gears are mounted on frame F.

Since the rollers 13 and 13" meter the strip, other work requiring accurate registration such as printing, gluing or perforating may be done immediately following the rollers 13 and 13. FIGURE 1 shows a printing cylinder 60 and impression cylinder 61, these two cylinders being mounted on the frame and driven directly from the motor driven gear by means of the idler gears 62, 62. The type cylinder 60 is inked with a conventional arrangement comprising inking rollers 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, and 68 connected to the reservoir 69 all mounted on the frame F. The roller 67 may be mounted on an oscillating arm 67 Since the web is metered by the rollers 13 and 13' and the printing cylinders are directly geared to the roller 13, perfect registration for printingis obtained. Other work requiring registration such as perforating may also be done instead of printing or in addition thereto. Glue may be applied in the same manner as the printing, or in addition thereto. Other work means such as slitting means may be incorporated as desired. Since the registration is maintained, great flexibility may be used to perform various operations. For instance, a strip may be perforated, printed, notched and slit along the axis for making several rows of tickets from one web or strip. Printing through an inked ribbon may be done at the central work location.

The operation of the device is as follows: The drive rollers 3 and feed the paper 1 in at a constant speed K. Assume the arm 8 is in the position shown by the full lines and that the roller 7 is just starting to move upwardly. The speed of the upward motion of the roller 7 is chosen with respect to the web speed K so that all the slack will be taken up but there will be no motion of the paper on the idler roller 6. Therefore, during a portion of the upward motion of the roller 7 there is no motion of the strip at the work location 20, 21 and the work such as punching, printing or cutting, as the case may be, is done during this period. As roller 7 accelerates up, the web at the work location slows down. During a portion of the upward motion of roller 7, the web stops at the work location and then starts to move again. At the same time as the roller 7 is going up, the roller 14, also on arm 8, is falling so that the output slack loop is being decreased.

When the roller 7 starts to fall, the roller 14 goes up increasing the output slack loop and pulling the paper past the work location during this period at approximately 2K, thereby completing one cycle. All the upward force of roller 14 is directed to move the paper past the work location as the paper cannot be retracted from roller 13. The paper movement portion of the cycle is long compared to the work portion, as shown in FIGURE 2, which is a plot of the web velocity at the work location. The plot is a periodic wave having average speed equal to K and maximum speed equal to 2K. FIGURE 3 shows a front view of an embodiment of the invention, and FIGURE 4 shows a partial side view of the embodiment of FIGURE 3.

Referring to the FIGURES 3 and 4, all the apparatus is mounted on a pair of side frame members F and F The flywheel cam is mounted on brackets 30 and 31 connected to the top of the frame members. The cam follower arm 9 is mounted on shaft 33 which is journalled to the frame F The oscillating arm 8 is fixedly connected to the shaft 33 and the oscillating rollers 7 and 14 are mounted at opposite ends of the oscillating arm 8. There is a corresponding oscillating arm 8' on shaft 33' journalled to the other frame member F to support the other ends of the rollers 7 and 14.

The input roller 5 is journalled to and between the frame members F and F Pressure idler roller 5 is mounted on lever 17 which is pivotally connected to the frame and spring loaded against roller 5 by spring 17'. There is a corresponding lever on the other side. The input idler roller 6 is not journalled directly to the frames but is pivotally mounted on the frames by means of the bracket 34 and a corresponding bracket on the other side. The bracket 34 is pivotally mounted on the frame F on shaft 35 and is spring loaded by means of the compression spring 36. The output idler roller '12 is similarly pivotally mounted on the bracket 37. The purpose of these mountings is to provide a slight giving under tension of the web P so that there is less danger of tearing the web when it is moved. Adjustment screws 34' and 37 are provided to adjust the positions of rollers 6 and 12 to adjust the registration of the equally spaced holes in the web with respect to a reference point in the machine. Output drive roller 13 is journalled to the side frames. Pressure idler roller v13 is mounted on lever 18 and spring loaded against roller 13 by spring 18'.

FIGURE 3A shows an improvement of the embodiment of FIGURE 3 for providing additional registration controlmeans. In the embodiment of FIGURE 3A the guide roller 12 is mounted on a modified bracket 80 which is pivotally connected to the frame and which is spring loaded by the compression spring 81. The roller 6 is also rotatably mounted on the bracket 82 which is pivotal- 1y mounted to the frame at the same horizontal plane as bracket 80. The brackets and rollers 6 and 12 are connected by a linking bar 83. The bracket has a pair of extension members 83, 84 which form a U-shape interior cam surface. Inside it is mounted an eccentric cam 85 which is rotatably mounted on a shaft 86 which is journalled to the frame F. Bracket 80 is spring loaded against the cam 85 by compression spring 81. A handle 87 is connected to rotate the cam 85. Since the cam 85 is eccentric to the shaft 86, rotation of the handle 87 will adjust the angular position of the bracket 80 and also the bracket 82 which are connected together by means of the link 88. This movement adjusts the registration of a point or hole in the web P with respect to any reference point on the machine. The handle 87 extends outside the frame so that the apparatus may be adjusted in registration or alignment with respect to a reference point on the machine while the machine is running at full speed, the adjustments being made between strokes of the punch press. This is an important feature as the registration or alignment cannot be accurately adjusted while the machine is standing still since the web is not subject to the same tension forces as will occur during operation at a desired speed. Even as the machine continues to run it may be necessary to adjust the registration or alignment from time to time due to changes in the humidity conditions or the strength of the web material. A locking knob 90 is preferably provided to lock the handle 87 and shaft 86 to the frame once the adjustment is made. Knob 90 may be mounted on a threaded shaft having a head portion extending through a threaded hole in handle 87 and curved slot 91 in bracket 92 connected to the frame and is adapted to clamp handle 87 to bracket 92.

The rollers 6 and 12 are arranged to maintain said web horizontally, which is the preferred position. The horizontal plane containing the web shifts slightly along an are because of the pivotal mounting of the brackets. However this will not interfere with the proper operation of the machine, since once the adjustment is made the web remains in a horizontal plane determined by the adjustable rollers, and the cutting dies may be adjusted if necessary.

All of the rotating parts are driven by a motor shaft through direct gearing, the gears being mounted on the frame. The motor drive gear 41 is directly connected to idler gears 42 and 43 which are journalled to the frame F The idler gear 43 is directly connected to gear 44 which is fixedly connected to the crankshaft cam flywheel '10. Coming down the other side of the frame F the gear 44 is directly connected to idler gears 45 and 46 which are journalled to the frame F Gear 46 is directly connected to gear 49 which is fixedly connected to the input drive roller 5. The gear 49 is also directly connected to gear 49' which contacts gear 47 which in turn is directly connected to the roller 3, journalled to the frame.

Referring more particularly to FIGURE 4 the cam arm 9 is mounted on a shaft 33 which is journalled to the frame F by bearing 54. The cam follower 9' rides in the groove 10' of the flywheel cam 10. This groove may be approximately a circle having its center olfset so that the arm 9 oscillates as described in connection with FIGURE 1. The flywheel cam 10 is mounted on a shaft 52 which is journalled to the bracket 30 connected to the top of the frame F Corresponding shaft 52 is journalled to the bracket 31 mounted on top of the bracket F A flywheel 53 is connected to the other end of the shaft 52'. The shafts 52 and 52' are connected at the center of the apparatus by crank arms 22, 22', and pin 29 which connects them to the connecting rod 23 which is pivotally connected at its lower end to a cutting die 20, 21, or other reciprocating work apparatus. The particular work to be done may be varied as desired, and of course, various dies may be substituted for performing various operations on the web.

More specifically, the reciprocating portion of the embodiment of FIGURES 3 and 4 comprising the crankshaft, connecting rod 23, and the moving parts connected thereto may be a commercially available punch press arrangement. As shown in FIGURE 4 the connecting rod 23 is connected to the crank arms 22, 22. The connecting arm 23 terminates at its lower end in a ball 23' which rests in a socket 69' in the portion 61 of the member 60. The member 60 is a heavy casting which slides up and down on a pair of bronze igibs 62 and 63 fastened to it. The upper part of the casting is a well portion 64 through which the connecting rod extends. The ball 23 of the connecting rod is held in the socket by means of a retainer nut 65. The member 60 slides in V-shaped ways in a pair of steel side members 66 and 67 which are secured to the side frames by the bolts 70', 71 and 72, 73. The members 66 and 67 have openings 66' and 67' to accommodate the oscillating arms 8 and 8. The portion of the member 60 containing the socket 611 is rounded out and moves with the bronze gibs 62, 63 to which it is fixedly connected.

The oscillating arm 8 is fixedly connected to the other end of the shaft 33, being bolted to bracket 55 which is brazed to shaft 33. There is a corresponding shaft 33 on the other side journalled into the frame F by means of the bearing 56, and corresponding oscillating arm 8 is fixedly mounted on the end of the shaft 33' by means of bracket 57. The rollers 7 and 14 are mounted between the arms 8 and 8 at one end thereof as shown in FIGURE 4A.

The paper P enters the apparatus onto the driven input roller 3, then around rollers 5, 7, and 6 through the work location, then around output rollers 12, 14, and 13. The input and output slack loops around the rollers 7 and 14 mounted on the oscillating arm 8 are manipulated by the oscillating arm 8 in accordance with the oscillating movement of the arm 9 in response to the cam action of the cam follower 9' and the cam groove 10" on the cam Wheel 10. All the driven rollers operate at constant speed and the input and output slack loops are manipulated in synchronism with the work apparatus so that the velocity of the web past the work location is intermittent as substantially shown on the graph of FIGURE 2, namely, as a periodic wave flattened out at the top and bottom to permit a small time per cycle for the work.

The present invention is not limited to a specific work apparatus and various dies or punches, knives or gluing or other apparatus may be used as desired. The important feature is that the work apparatus is synchronized with the paper moving apparatus so as to obtain high speed operation.

Various modifications may be made in the invention without departing from the scope thereof. For instance, different mechanical mounting or drive means may be used. For instance, a chain drive could be used instead of a gear drive or other oscillating members could be used instead of the rotatably mounted arm. As previously mentioned the reciprocating die punch portions of the embodiment shown are conventional and various types of conventional punch presses could be used in connection with the present invention. The invention is not limited to reciprocating work means but could be used with rotary work means, for instance, a gluing wheel having periodically spaced gluing brushes which would operate at low speed so that the gluing brushes would contact predetermined portions of the web at those instants when the web is stationary, the rotary wheel being synchronized with the motion of the web.

We claim:

1. In a web feeding machine means to adjust the alignment of equally spaced reference points on said web relative a reference point on said machine comprising a pair of brackets pivotally mounted on said frame, a pair of idler rollers for said web rotatably mounted on said brackets, said rollers being tangent to a common horizontal plane, means to feed said web to the first of said idler rollers at a substantial angle to said horizontal plane, means to feed said web from the second of said idiler rollers at a substantial angle to said horizontal plane, a horizontal link bar connecting said pivotally mounted brackets, to hold said rollers tangent to a common horizontal plane, means to oscillatably adjust said brackets in parallel relation whereby said rollers remain tangent to a common horizontal plane, comprising an eccentric cam rotatably mounted on said frame adapted to bear against one of said brackets and handle means outside the frame casing of said machine to adjust the rotational position of said cam and means to hold said brackets in fixed position following adjustment to thereby adjust the registration of said Web with respect to the reference point on said machine, while said machine is running at full speed.

2. Means for feeding strip material past a work station including means to produce equally spaced punches in said Web comprising substantially constant speed driven input roller means, constant speed punch means, substantially constant speed driven output roller means, means to adjust equally spaced indicia on said web with respect to a succeeding work station while running at full speed comprising a pair of brackets pivotally mounted on said frame, a pair of guide idler rollers for said Web rotatably mounted on said brackets, said rollers being tangent the same horizontal plane, means to feed said web to the first of said idler rollers at a substantial angle to said horizontal plane, means to feed said web from the second of said idler rollers at a substantial angle to said horizontal plane, a horizontal link bar connecting said pivotally mounted brackets, to hold said idler rollers tangent the same horizontal plane, means to oscillatably adjust said brackets in parallel relation whereby said idler rollers remain tangent to a common horizontal plane, comprising an eccentric cam rotatably mounted on said frame adapted to bear against one of said brackets and means to adjust the rotational position of said cam to thereby adjust the registration of said Web with respect to the reference point on said machine, a first oscillatable roller between said constant speed and idler input rollers to manipulate an unloaded controlled input slack loop in said strip, a second oscillatable roller between said constant speed and idler output rollers to provide an output slack loop in said strip, said first and second oscillatable rollers being mounted on oscillatable means, means to oscillate said oscillatable means comprising a cam directly connected to said web input and output drive rollers whereby said slack loops are manipulated so that the motion of said strip past said Work location is intermittent, and work means for operating on said strip, said work means being connected to operate in synchronism with said oscillating means.

3. Means for feeding a strip of material past a work station comprising substantially constant speed driven input roller means driving said strip, constant speed punch means, substantially constant speed driven output roller means driving said strip, means to adjust equally spaced indicia on said web with respect to a succeeding work station While said strip driving rollers are driving said strip continuously at full speed comprising a pair of brackets pivotally mounted on said frame, a pair of idler guide rollers for said web rotatably mounted on said brackets, said idler rollers being tangent the same horizontal plane, means :to feed said web to the first of said idler rollers at a substantial angle to said horizontal plane, means to feed said Web from the second of said idler rollers at a substantial angle to said horizontal plane, a horizontal link bar connecting said pivotally mounted brackets, to hold said rollers tangent the same horizontal plane, means to rotate said brackets in parallel relation whereby said rollers remain tangent to a common horizontal plane, comprising an eccentric cam rotatably mounted on said frame adapted to bear against one of said brackets and means to adjust the rotational position of said cam to thereby adjust the registration of said Web with respect to the reference point on said machine, means to hold said brackets in fixed position following adjustment, a first oscillatable roller between said constant speed and idler input rollers to manipulate an unloaded controlled input slack loop in said strip, a second oscillatable roller between said constant speed and idler output rollers to provide an output slack loop in said strip, said first and second ioscillatable rollers being mounted on oscillatable means, means to oscillate said oscillatable means comprising a cam directly connected to said web input and output drive rollers.

4. In a web feeding machine, means to adjust the registration of equally spaced holes in a web relative a reference point on said machine comprising a pair of brackets pivotally mounted in the same horizontal plane on said frame, a pair of idler rollers for said web rotatably mounted on said brackets, said rollers being tangent to a common horizontal plane containing said web, means to feed said web to the first of said idler rollers at a substantial angle to said horizontal plane, means to feed said web from second of said idler rollers at a substantial angle to said horizontal plane, a horizontal link bar connecting said pivotally mounted brackets, to hold said rollers tangent to a common horizontal plane, and means to oscillatably adjust said brackets in parallel relation whereby said rollers remain tangent to a common horizontal plane containing said web, comprising an eccentric cam rotatably mounted on said frame and adapted to bear against one of said brackets, means to adjust the rotational position of said cam and means to hold said brackets in fixed position following adjustment, to thereby adjust the registration of said web with respect to a reference point on said machine.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

1. IN A WEB FEEDING MACHINE MEANS TO ADJUST THE ALINGMENT OF EQUALLY SPACED REFERENCE POINTS ON SAID WEB RELATIVE A REFERENCE POINT ON SAID MACHINE COMPRISING A PAIR OF BRACKETS PIVOTALLY MOUNTED ON SAID FRAME, A PAIR OF IDLER ROLLERS FOR SAID WEB ROTATABLY MOUNTED ON SAID BRACKETS, SAID ROLLERS BEING TANGENT TO A COMMON HORIZONTAL PLANE, MEANS TO FEED SAID WEB TO THE FIRST OF SAID IDELER ROLLERS AT A SUBSTANTIAL ANGLE TO SAID HORIZONTAL PLANE, A MEANS TO FEED SAID WEB FROM THE SECOND OF SAID IDLER ROLLERS AT A SUBSTANTIAL ANGLE TO SAID HORIZONTAL PLANE, A HORIZONTAL LINK BAR CONNECTING SAID PIVOTALLY MOUNTED BRACKETS, TO HOLD SAID ROLLERS TANGENT TO A COMMON HORIZONTAL PLANE, MEANS TO OSCILLATABLY ADJUST SAID BRACKETS IN PARALLEL RELATION WHEREBY SAID ROLLERS REMAIN TANGENT TO A COMMON HORIZONTAL PLANE, COMPRISING AN ECCENTRIC CAM ROTATABLY MOUNTED ON SAID FRAME ADAPTED TO BEAR AGAINST ONE OF SAID BRACKETS AND HANDLE MEANS OUTSIDE THE FRAME CASING OF SAID MACHINE TO ADJUST THE ROTATIONAL POSITION OF SAID CAM AND MEANS TO HOLD SAID BRACKETS IN FIXED POSITION FOLLOWING ADJUSTMENT TO THEREBY ADJUST THE REGISTRATION OF SAID WEB WITH RESPECT TO THE REFERENCE POINT ON SAID MACHINE, WHILE SAID MACHINE IS RUNNING AT FULL SPEED. 